TUESDAY'S WORDS

I love my work; I love ideas; and BIG WORK with BIG IDEAS might be my most favorite thing in the entire world. (I also love hyperbole.) And while I get very excited by the idea of making impact and changing the world, I’m reminded lately, that mostly the work is quite small. That actually changing the world or shifting systems or striving for equity actually happens in small actions/ways every day. And it often happens in (small) meetings.

And these (small) meetings matter because they’re the way we get work - big and small - done. I’ll share an example.

Earlier this month, I was part of a community meeting with about 25 people. The meeting was for a specific project aimed at building a “safe, healthy, connected, and thriving” community in 4 neighborhoods in a particular geographic area of our community. In the meeting, we asked folks to share - What small projects could we do this summer to build our community? We spent the meeting discussing the projects and getting ideas. Next month, we’ll follow up with some capacity building to help folks plan how to put their ideas into action, and we’ll follow that up with another meeting where the community will determine 3 projects to fund.

Not a big deal. Not changing the entire system, shifting infrastructure, addressing oppression or “swallowing the ocean” as a colleague of mine says. But, rather, taking a sip, seeing a small change that is entirely within our ability to make, getting started, seeing what happens, and moving from there. It was one of the most satisfying meetings I’ve been to in a long time. And I know that the seeds planted in the meeting - community self-direction, commitment to follow up, and giving some small resourcing to move things forward - will continue to grow. They may actually lead to the big change we seek. After all, these small steps in small meetings are the manifestation of a long-term commitment to the neighborhoods that we hope will change the ocean’s tides.

So while I can get really tripped out on BIG CHANGE INITIATIVES, I need to remind myself that the biggest changes are based on small, consistent, meaningful, and productive meetings of human beings. ​Some days as I’m dreaming big, I need to remind myself that the work is small, too: It’s in the way we design our meetings, how we are when we’re meeting together, what we decide to do next, and how we follow through on those decisions.

Want to learn more about working big by running really good (small) meetings? Join Tim Merry and I as we launch our latest Leading Effective Meetings online course. More information available over at www.workdonebettertogether.com.

I don't think we've ever met. I guess I was moved to write your article because I’ve gone through a similar insight recently and was touched by the power of a billion grassroots community initiatives and social enterprises and if I could just be catalyst for a few of them I would be probably be more impactful than trying to survive years in a corporate culture that just alienated me… Besides there are stresses that show up most prominently in my tone of voices and body language… which rather gives away that I don’t feel I belong there and inhibits the development of relationships to build alliance’s.

I guess i'm really trying to let go of my 'Hero' Archetype once and for all – but of course the Art of Facilitating Participatory Conversations is the ultimate transferable skills and I think can be applied outside of organisations entirely to community contexts, family and friends groups, recovery groups, club/societies and even help us to develop more authenticity, holistic presence and deeper, more meaningful, and effective 1:2:1 Conversation.

I too used to be pretty seduced by the big AOH style ‘whole system in the room gatherings’ and have been to` a few AOH trainings’ but then I began to wonder by pinching the principles and processes and practices, the diamond structure if they weren't a bit like an intense 3 day fireworks display. It was all oos and ahhhs in the moment – but were rarely used in organisations and communities exceptive for conferences or possibly - these participatory group methods if facilitated with care & combined with some of the insights of those with practical experience of change in complex systems could yield significantly more creative solutions, improved shared understanding within the project group, make more effective decisions and genuine shared ownership of actions plans. Is see two main problems though:

1) Project change groups for small project may only have 4-7 volunteers with significant constraints on how much and when they can commit time. What I’ve learnt is that the secret of co-learning and co-creativity is in the diversity of the group: Ideally you want stakeholders representing the center and the periphery, subject matter experts and beginner’s minds (isn’t it generally the expert that are the toughest ‘blockers’ – they come in with the solution already in mind while their egoic mind rather clings to whatever traditional paradigm represents ‘best practice’.)
2) The other issue is I’ve noticed something of a culture of time-boxing specific to project meetings. Now this kick-off has been scheduled for one hour – I reckon I could squeeze it into 2 hours provided most of the group already know each other have a shared understanding of the organisational culture, the community context, the goals of the project and may even have worked on practically carbon copy events organised over the last few years

The other thing is Transition Town Totnes (the original Transition town) are the closest organisation structure to what I think of as Chaordic I have ever come across.

1. TTT’s role is to ‘catalyse and support' as opposed to holding a managing a range of projects”
2. Transition works by inviting people to take ownership on the process, by not claiming to have all the answers, but encouraging creativity, and by building networks with other organisations.”
3. So all initiatives are bottom up – we provide some basic banking services and, a limited liability vehicle in which to operate the project

IMHO this hands off operational governance, self organising groups & projects, the evolving purpose of the charity that is commitment to supporting people engaging with their whole being (inner transition etc) is the secret of its success. It means its a classic Chaordic Organisation which can handle ‘complexity’ because doesn’t seek command and control top down governance or that POs be experts in their field. Neither is there any project risk management, audit, QA etc, Instead community members take accountability for their own projects and supported by a group who operate in a participatory and collaborative way, make loads of experiments, many which initially fail along the way which is the which is the quickest way to develop a learning organisation. – provided project owners share experiences ins stry forms or Lesson Learned.

As far as I am aware there is no ‘project delivery mentor’ assigned to support delivery of a new change initiatives. Maybe they have just evolved a way of working which is implicit in the organisations culture and knowledge and they’ve got all this sussed out. Then thought of Chris Corrigan’s ‘Chardodic Stepping Stones’. In fact his description of an organstion that needs to navigate a path between the chao

Really great to hear from you, even if we've not met! There's a lot of really good stuff here. I was particularly struck by your being insight around the "whole system in the room" type of large gatherings or the epiphany-filled trainings.

I LOVE both of those modalities, AND I completely agree that they are not the way change gets made in and of themselves. I also don't find them to be the place where the majority of good work gets done. I love these gatherings as places of inspiration and insight that can jump start or sustain the hard work that's often left to small teams who have to slog through the mundane work of emails and deadlines and budgets and interpersonal dynamics, too. So for me they can be part of the picture, but some of the other things you mentioned above: folks identifying what's important to them, taking responsibility for moving it forward, and having the accountability of relationships and sharing learning with each other to be vitally important. Whether we're doing large meetings or project-based small team work.

I guess I just believe that we can't get too certain or comfortable with any of it, really. We have to keep pushing the edges of our learning and practice. Notice what works (as you're doing above), do that some more, and stop what isn't working anymore.

And enjoy the "small" meetings and moments in the process.

Thanks for dropping by the blog!

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TUESDAY'S WORDS

This blog is a place where I share what I'm doing out in the world, reflect on what I'm learning, and also capture some of my random thoughts. I'd love these blogs to start new conversations. Please join me in the comments or send me an email about what these posts bring up​for you!

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"You want to know how we can all be together better? Tuesday Ryan-Hart has devoted her life to exploring this question. She is fearless in inviting people to turn toward one another on behalf of what matters most. And she does this with kindness, compassion and conviction. Whenever I'm asked to recommend someone to design and facilitate strategic change work—particularly around topics like race, class and economic justice—I always recommend Tuesday. Plus, she's fun as hell!~Deborah Frieze, Boston ​ Impact Initiative